A world with you in it
by Cyn V
Summary: Obito and Kakashi are the best two-man team in the Leaf, but their unexpected failure to complete a mission puts the peace so arduously won after the Fourth Shinobi World War under serious threat. (AU in which Rin was not part of team Minato and Obito was not Tobi.)
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: Kishimoto owns _Naruto_. I just like to fool around with it.**

**About this AU: A****fter meeting Madara, Obito returned to the Leaf as soon as he was healthy enough. Regardless of this, Madara found a way to proceed with his plan so that canon events happened in mostly the same way, except that Obito never became Tobi and fought on the good guys' side next to Kakashi. Meanwhile, Run was not a part of team Minato and so did not meet the boys until after the Fourth Great War. I will eventually go over these things in the story. This explanation is just so you're not confused about what's what until then!**

** Basically, I wanted to write something that involved telepathy and where Kakashi and Obito got along. I'll leave it up to you guys to decide if everything else is okay or not. :)**

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**I.**

He knew her without ever seeing her. She was a voice in his head, a thought not his, a lifeline to home and warmth and a safe haven when danger was all around him. He was completely and utterly besotted with her. If only he knew who she was.

Obito shifted in his seat to face his friend and teammate. "Kakashi, you could ask that kid Tenzou to look into the mission records to find out her name, couldn't you?"

The identities of the members of the ANBU Black Ops were highly classified. Kakashi and Obito were currently on a regular mission that did not require them to wear masks, but they had been a part of the organization for years and still did not know more than the codename of the girl from the Intelligence Division who had been receiving their reports for the past three months.

Kakashi stared, unimpressed. For a good, long moment, he did not dignify the question with an answer. Then he deadpanned:

"You do realize we're in the middle of an A-rank mission, don't you? Now is hardly the time to talk about such things."

Obito huffed like a genin fresh out of the Academy after a scolding by his jounin instructor. Crossing his arms in front of his chest, he hunched back into his previous position, sitting at a dirty little table in a dirty little bar, waiting for their mark to exit the restroom where he was no doubt engaged with some perfumed beauty.

Kakashi was right, of course, though he could not help but feel personally slighted that his best friend could not be bothered to put aside their mission for one second to help him with such a troubling issue. After all, considering their combined skill sets, their assignment might as well have been a D-rank. All they had to do was capture a guy called Taro Shigeki, of all the stupid names. He was the wealthiest business mogul in the Land of Hot Springs, but had recently drawn attention to himself because of his involvement in some decidedly shady activity in Water country. Right now, only a lousy detachment of six Mist ninjas stood in the way of Kakashi and Obito's success.

If Kakashi did not always insist on being so cautious about everything, Obito could have used his Mangekyou Sharingan to slip next to the man and kidnap him hours ago. They could have been well on their way back to the Leaf by now, reporting mission success to the lovely girl who was their telepathic connection to the Hokage's office and who currently occupied the whole of Obito's thoughts.

The young Uchiha let his mind wander from the wretched den he found himself stuck in. The air was heavy with tobacco smoke and the stench of old sweat, whatever few beams of light made their way inside past the boarded up windows revealing years of dust sent flying by the raucous activities of the low life of this backwater town. Pretty servers carrying trays full of glasses and bottles weaved their way among the tables, sashaying hips tantalizing any who cared to look their way.

Obito's gaze happened to find one girl who had light green eyes and off he was, wondering if his girl would have light eyes too. They would probably be blue, since that was the most common eye color for members of the Yamanaka clan and everyone knew that the Intelligence Division was basically one big Yamanaka hangout. How tall would she be? As tall as that server girl? Was her hair short or long, fair or dark?

A slap to his shoulder, courtesy of Kakashi, brought him back to planet Earth. His attention whipped back to the restroom door, only to find that the man whose picture they had been given at the Leaf village was back, adjusting the collar of his shirt and pulling his tie a little tighter around his throat. He stopped by the table where a pack of illustrious board members from his company sat to retrieve his jacket, gulped down the last of his drink and then made his way towards the door, alone.

"Thank heaven... Finally!" Obito mumbled.

His friend chuckled lightly. It was not every day that Obito could get such a reaction out of him while they were out on a mission, so he counted it as a sign that Kakashi was as fed up of the prolonged watch duty as him. While he tracked the location of their target's bodyguards, Obito decided he may as well go for broke.

"You know, one little Kamui is all it would take..."

This time, Kakashi did not make him wait for a response. "Yeah, all right. As soon as we're outside, go for it. Somewhere we won't have to worry about civilians."

Obito could have smacked him over the head for that. Two hours ago, Kakashi had said it was too risky to use Kamui to grab their target, that there was a chance that the Mist ninjas might recognize the technique and associate the kidnappers with the Leaf. Now he was not even arguing! They could have avoided the whole detour to the bar and their depressing waiting game if only Kakashi had let him act back then.

"Why do we always have to do things the hard way?"

"Why do you always have to be such a pain in my neck?"

"Shut up," Obito said, feigning offense. "You and I both know you love me."

Kakashi's sigh was that of one who was world-weary. He dropped enough coins on the table to cover the expense of the drinks they had ordered but not touched and pushed his friend off of his chair. "Right now, I really don't. Come on: let's get this over with."

Obito let Kakashi take the lead. He kept watch over the left half of the enemies they could see, as per usual whenever he and Kakashi were on a mission and had to go up against a group. At the same time, he tried to make sense of the direction in which they were going.

"Hey, Captain. This isn't the way to the inn," he realized.

"Are you sure?" Kakashi's voice was tight. Obito had been the one to scout the town earlier, while Kakashi tracked down their mark.

"Not unless he's staying in a boat. He's headed for the docks."

The wind blew chillier as they approached the waterfront. Although it was spring time, closer to summer, the weather this far north was always a little harsher than they were used to in the Leaf. Still, neither ninja let the cold disturb them to the point where their efficiency would be compromised. No shivering would give away their presence and jeopardize the successful outcome of their mission. The next time they had to come to these parts, though, Obito figured he would pack cloaks and scarves right next to the first-aid medi-pack. He would not underestimate the northern winter a second time.

Following after the mark in the shadows left by whatever few streetlights were on was not difficult. Given the general state of disrepair of the buildings in this part of town, there were plenty of hiding spots along the way. The Mist ninjas were also staying fairly close to the businessman, so it was easy to keep sight of the six of them at once.

When it looked like they had reached their destination – a terminal for cargo ships – Obito and Kakashi found a hiding place that allowed them to observe whatever would happen next, kneeling behind one of the large rectangular containers used to carry goods over sea.

There did not seem to be anyone else around this part of the docks other than the six ninja and their target, but by now Obito had abandoned his idea to wrap up the mission as quickly as possible with Kamui. His and Kakashi's orders were to capture the man, first and foremost, but also to gather whatever information they could find about the corrupt dealings he was involved in and who else was collaborating with him. If the out-of-the-way terminal they found themselves in did not meet all the requirements to accommodate a secret meeting, Obito would give up his left eye. And that was the only one he still had.

"What do you make of this?" he prompted Kakashi, sure that his friend would have reached the same conclusion as him.

"Yeah. Sorry, it looks like your date with that cute Yamanaka will have to wait a little longer."

"Hah!" Obito grinned. "Well, they say absence makes the heart grow fonder and you know how I've always needed all the help I could get when it comes to girls."

From his position crouching next to him, Obito could hear the slight huff of air against cloth that meant Kakashi had laughed once more. What a rare day this was turning out to be, he thought. Kakashi must have inhaled more alcoholic fumes than he thought back at that bar or something.

"You are kind of hopeless," Kakashi confirmed. He sounded like he was about to add other similarly disparaging remarks, but then the darkness of the pier was sliced cleanly by a blade of yellow lamplight coming from an open door.

Obito directed a measure of extra chakra towards his eye, enough to sharpen his sight but not so much that any sensor types who might be among the bodyguards would notice. He was hoping to see the features of whoever was at that door protected by the backlight, but he had no such luck. The most he could see thanks to his Sharingan was the faint green tint of the newcomer's underdeveloped chakra system.

"Whoever that is, he doesn't look like he's trained in the ninja arts," he let Kakashi know.

Their businessman vanished inside the house after that, closing the door behind him and letting the dark blues of night wash over the cold pier once more. Kakashi and Obito nearly groaned aloud as they settled into their new surveillance post, huddling close together behind the metal container for warmth.

"What do you think? One hour until we see him again this time?" Obito started to joke, but the frown on Kakashi's face gave him pause. "What is it?"

"I think I'd like you to talk to your new girlfriend sooner rather than later this time," he said.

After all the years he had known Kakashi and all the life-changing experiences they had lived through together, from two world wars to the trials of mentoring genin, Obito was usually very adept at deciphering the meaning behind his friend's half sentences, but this particular reply surprised him.

"Back to plan A?" Obito asked.

"Back to plan A," Kakashi confirmed.

"Huh," Obito pondered. Being the rash one of the two, he certainly had no complaints regarding Kakashi's change of heart. "All right then!"

Activating his Mangekyou Sharingan, Obito took Kakashi into his pocket dimension, then teleported himself to the top of a narrow pole conducting electric wiring that he had spotted behind one of the Mist ninjas. Neither move seemed to draw the attention of their enemies, disproving his earlier guess that there might be sensor types among that team.

His new vantage point afforded him a panoramic view over that corner of the docks, the perfect starting point for an attack designed to take out the enemies efficiently. Just then, however, a dull, rumbling roar broke the quiet of the night, coming from somewhere out at sea.

A chill that had nothing to do with the weather electrified Obito's spine as he heard it. For a moment, the ground beneath him did not look like flat cement, but rather a desolate battlefield of jutting rocks. The shadows swaying nearby to the rhythm of the tide ceased to register as ships, their tall masts looking more like deadly tails and tentacles reaching skywards from white monsters with infinite chakra stores, ready to wipe out the world from existence.

Obito blinked through his daze and the illusion passed as if it had never been. Had he been a lesser ninja, his distraction might have cost him his control over the chakra that secured him to the pole. As it was, he was able to keep his cool long enough to snap back to reality and realize that it was only the sound of a ship's foghorn that he had heard.

He did not pause a second longer before acting. As he jumped down, kunai at the ready to take out the closest of the businessman's detail, he looked off to the side, just past the furthest bodyguard away from him and opened a portal for Kakashi to slip through and launch his own attack.

The battle was short lived. Even had the strike not blindsided them, none of the Mist ninjas had the skills to match their assailants. While Kakashi tore through the enemy ranks with Chidori lighting his way, Obito systematically took out his own allotted half of the guards, phasing through their mostly blind attempts to retaliate as necessary and therefore incurring no injuries. By the time it was over, the two Leaf jounin looked at each other and made their way to the house that their mark had gone into, not expecting any further opposition. The cold was all but forgotten with the adrenalin of sudden activity pumping through their veins.

"See? Easy as pie. I told you we should have done this sooner," Obito could not help but comment.

Kakashi rolled his eyes as he got closer to a window, ducking out of sight of anyone who might be inside and pressing an ear to the gap where it connected with the rest of the wall.

"You'll get to call the shots when you're team captain," Kakashi said. "Until then... Oh!"

Obito reacted immediately to Kakashi's gasp, so he was not too far behind the other as he sprinted towards the door of the small house and kicked it down.

They made it inside just in time to see the bright glow of a depleted seal rapidly fading along with a burst of green fire consuming the scroll that most likely contained its support of ink sigils. A quick scan with the Sharingan revealed that the house before them had only the one room, no stairs leading to any upper floors or trapdoors to access any basements. The only two windows that might have otherwise allowed passage out of the house were shut and locked with iron bars. And no one was inside.

"Uhh... we didn't just imagine that they came in here, did we? Where the hell did they go?" Obito exclaimed.

Kakashi sighed, giving the room a second look with his own Sharingan blazing, knowing beforehand it would yield no different results.

"I guess you spoke too soon when you called this mission easy. They're gone."


	2. Chapter 2

**II.**

One hour later saw Kakashi and Obito checking into an inn three towns over. Dawn was not so far away, but sleep was the furthest thing from their minds at the moment.

Kakashi set out to secure the door and window of the bedroom they were sharing, while Obito sat down cross-legged on top of one of the beds to initiate contact with the Leaf ANBU Black Ops headquarters. He carried a flare scroll that, once activated, would flash a warning to their fellow ninjas at the Intelligence Division in the village that one of their teams was waiting to establish contact and that was what Obito used to signal to his incorporeal sweetheart that he had news to report. Afterwards, all that he had to do was wait for that lovely presence to step inside his soul.

"Tiger, hello!" that warm voice that was by now equal parts familiar and unknown resonated inside his head, making his ANBU codename sound like music and putting an unconscious smile on his lips. "How is my favorite Uchiha doing?"

Obito wished he could indulge in a little conversation with his siren as he normally would, but A-ranks were A-ranks and bad news should never be delayed. Besides, just beyond the barrier of his closed eyelids, he could feel Kakashi silently judging the reflexive blush coloring his cheeks.

"Hey, Crane. I'm afraid I'm calling in with bad news. Dog and I failed our mission."

"Failed?" the girl asked, shocked. Obito was touched that she apparently thought so highly of him as to assume that he would never let any such thing happen. Or perhaps that was just his wishful side jumping to conclusions. On top of being a complete mystery, this girl had the power to rob him of his ability to think rationally with her mere presence. "Are you all right? And Dog? Are any of you hurt?"

They were unscathed, but the question brought to mind the momentary panic that Obito had felt just before engaging the Mist ninjas, when the noise of that ship's horn piercing the night had paralyzed him, making him feel like he had never left the battleground where the Allied Shinobi Nations had fought against the Juubi. He wanted to tell Crane about it, to share the burden of the terror he had experienced with her, but ultimately decided that this was not the time to bring it up, not when there were more important things to discuss and Kakashi was standing in the same room as him, listening to his every word.

"We're fine, but our target vanished without a trace. We think it had something to do with a seal we found at his last verified location. We've enclosed it in the two-way storage scroll for you guys back home to look at. For the moment, though, Dog and I are abandoning pursuit since we have no way of tracking him."

"Understood," she acknowledged. "I'll pass on your report and get a team of seal experts to analyze your package. Is there anything else you need?"

_To spend time with you... To learn your every secret... To know your name..._

"No, that's all, Crane. Thanks," Obito, codename Tiger, said.

"Then I'll contact you again as soon as I have news. In the meantime, your orders are to keep trying to find out more about what this guy's planning. He is too dangerous to be walking around free."

"Got it," he said. Something about her last statement made his instincts tingle, though.

Was that lame businessman dangerous? Sure, otherwise the Leaf would not have bothered to send an ANBU team to deal with him, least of all the best team in the village with a long-standing record for the greatest chain of successfully accomplished missions. To term that man as "too" dangerous, however, was encroaching on an area of entirely different worries.

The mission had first started when the Leaf village had received reports of unusual activities down in Water country – aggressive moves made by their target's company, Ootsuki Global, that forced the Daimyou to surrender control of the greater part of their economy into that businessman's, Taro Shigeki's, hands. But those had only been the early premonitions of the storm no one could have guessed was coming. Unchallenged by the institutions of Water, the company had quickly grown and secured enough power to set itself up as a shadow government, in direct competition with the Daimyou's authority, often instructing the population to proceed in opposition to the orders of the Daimyou's officials.

Around that time, when it became clear that the ninja villages would have to intervene to prevent the dismemberment of one of the Great Five Nations, the Mizukage had sent a letter to the other four Kages, informing them that the Mist ninjas were working towards restoring harmony and balance in the country and requesting that they please stay out of Water until the brewing tension in their nation could be defused.

Obito and Kakashi, who had been at Water country at the time, gathering information, had been recalled to the Leaf. With them, they brought back accounts of just how fragile the situation was, of how it looked like Shigeki was isolating the provinces under his control from the rest of Water country, of how he had created border inspection posts, recruiting samurai and ninjas from lesser villages to strengthen his cause. Just as the Mizukage had said, tension was building and it seemed that the slightest disturbance might shatter the tenuous illusion of peace that kept the country from descending into civil war.

At first, all the ninja villages had honored the Mizukage's request, but once they received news that there were Mist ninjas aiding Shigeki's efforts to wrest power away from the Daimyou, their compromise to remain inactive had been abandoned. Obito and Kakashi had received the orders to capture the businessman directly from their Hokage and that was how they had ended up in the Land of Hot Springs.

"Crane," he called, "is everything all right over there?"

"We received a new report about Water country shortly after you left the village," Crane said.

Her voice sounded closer, more intimate all of a sudden, making Obito blush all the harder. At the back of his mind, he could just imagine the teasing he would get from Kakashi once he finished giving this report. At the forefront, however, he realized that whatever his beautiful Crane was about to say was so top secret that her ingrained training to keep anyone from overhearing sensitive intelligence was instinctively kicking in, even on a private conversation inside Obito's mind that no one else could possibly spy on.

"What did it say?"

"It came from a team of Lightning ninjas who infiltrated Water, so there are no doubts about its veracity. They said that they saw the Mizukage at the Ootsuki Global headquarters."

Obito had to play with the words for a few seconds to make sense of what Crane was trying to tell him. "So she is still negotiating with them to work out a compromise?"

"No, no, Tiger, you don't understand!" she hurried to clarify. "The Mizukage is helping them! The Lightning ninjas saw her take orders from one of the company men and instructing the Mist ninjas to help them achieve their goals in any way they can! It's terrible!"

An image of the six Mist ninjas who had been acting as bodyguards for Shigeki came to Obito's mind. Back at the dingy bar and when he had been fighting them alongside Kakashi he had simply assumed that they were rogues, but apparently not.

"Damn. What the hell is the Mizukage thinking?" Obito wondered.

"We're all as surprised as you are. I hear that lady Tsunade even broke her desk when they told her."

Obito did not like the sound of that. The situation looked bad indeed, but his siren sounded stressed and that made him want to soothe her worries, if only a little.

"Huh... she's been spending way too much time with the Raikage..." he joked.

Crane's reply was a chirping birdsong of giggles that made his heart soar in happiness. "Don't let her hear you say that! But, seriously, you and Dog need to be careful. Watch out for any Mist ninjas. We don't know what they might do."

"Got it, my darling Crane, and don't worry! It would take more than a few lousy ninjas to make Dog and I work up a sweat. We went toe to toe with Madara Uchiha himself back in the war, you know?"

Bragging about his fighting skills was his fall back tactic to reassure anyone, it seemed. Crane did not sound any more at ease when she answered, though.

"Just be safe, all right, Tiger?"

"Of course," he said calmly. How good it felt to know that she cared about him too.

"Good luck, to the both of you!"

Obito knew it was coming and he was more than used to the feeling of a breaking telepathic connection after all the years he had been in ANBU. It was not as though it hurt or was uncomfortable or damaging in any way, but every time his Yamanaka left him after contact, he felt like she took a tiny little piece of him along with her.

Stretching out his legs on the mattress, he let himself fall back, his head hitting a satisfyingly plump pillow as he sighed mightily. He felt a sudden exhaustion, an unwillingness to move as he savored the vestigial memories of his latest conversation with the object of his fixation, short as it had been. He had no energy to spare to removing his equipment or pulling a blanket over himself.

"You are such a schoolgirl," he heard Kakashi say off to the side.

The comment elicited little more than a faint wave of annoyance, hardly enough to pull Obito away from his listlessness. It was not the first time he had heard it, though usually it came up whenever Kakashi visited his house and realized that Obito had found yet another overly cheerful pop music sung by teenage girls to listen to on repeat.

"And what would you know of love, mister 'I'm a tool, I live to serve'?" Obito bit out.

Kakashi's one visible eye squinted. Obito knew him well enough to be certain he was making a face behind the cloth mask covering every other feature. It was, perhaps, a bit of a low blow to remind Kakashi of his insufferable pre-jounin personality, given the events that had caused his change to come about, but Obito was unrepentant.

As punishment, he got a wooly blanket that smelled of dust and mould thrown across his face.

"Anyway, what are our orders now?"

_Right_, Obito thought. He did have a tendency to forget that Kakashi could not listen to Crane's side of the conversation. He busied himself unfolding the blanket and laying it over his legs as he answered.

"She said that we should keep digging for information. Apparently, things are a mess back in Water because the Mizukage decided to switch to the bad guys' side."

Kakashi's eye was wide as he made sense of the news. Both he and Obito had personally met the Mizukage, a woman by the name of Mei Terumii, during the final battle of the Fourth Shinobi World War and it seemed out of character to him that she would now turn her back on the peace agreement that the Five Great Nations had signed in the aftermath.

"What did the Hokage have to say about it?"

"Nothing, or at least nothing that anyone could hear over the noise of breaking furniture. All Crane said was that we're to be on the lookout for Mist ninjas."

"Thanks for the warning," he mocked, thoughts undoubtedly going back to the bodyguard squad they had fought before, just as Obito's had. Then his shoulders slumped, his head lowered and the fabric of his mask stretched over a yawn. "If we're going to look for information, though, our best bet would be to track those friends our mark was with at the bar, so that's where we'll start tomorrow."

"Oh, joy, to go back to that house of wonders..." Obito said, rolling his eyes and punctuating his statement with a yawn of his own.

"Yeah, well... shut up and get some rest, little schoolgirl," Kakashi said. "We leave at sunrise."

Now those were orders Obito could get behind. Bidding his best friend good night, he closed his eyes and let himself be swept by dreams of his sweetheart's melodious voice and long blond hair, of giant plants obscuring the moon and of the despair of fighting losing battles.

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**Hello, de****ar re****aders****! ****I hope you've enjoyed the new chapter. I just w****anted to let you know th****at I'll be doing**** my best to keep a regular upd****ate ****schedule, posting on**** weekends****. Yay? So, if I mess up and take a long time to put up ****a new ch****apter****, feel**** free to yell at me, h****ah****a.**

**Lots of love! ;)**


	3. Chapter 3

**III.**

The darkest hours of night had already passed when ANBU Crane stepped into the small Intelligence Division's locker room to change out of her gear and into regular clothes, more than ready to go home and sleep the following day away. It was a stroke of luck that the room was empty, as most of her coworkers usually clocked out around this time too, and she decided to take full advantage of the extra bench space to lay down and breathe freely for the first time in hours.

After talking to Tiger, she had gone straight to the office of the Leaf's resident seal experts to deliver the two-way scroll containing his package. She had never had much reason to go there before, but the one time she had visited the place during the orientation session on her first day at ANBU had left her with the distinct impression that anyone who dedicated themselves to the study of seals operated on some sort of parallel universe where up was down, right was wrong and everyone was one stroke short of a kanji. Her visit this time did nothing to contradict the notion.

The minute that she had opened the door, a giant ball of flame had erupted from the middle of the room to the sound of slightly hysterical laughter and raucous applause. Her reflexes were fast enough that she jumped back into the hallway on time to avoid getting singed, but the wrecked ceiling and doorway had not been so fortunate and spoke of a real danger averted. Her heart thumped against her ribcage and her ears refused to stop replaying the white roar the flame had made. She did a quick breathing exercise to get her pulse under control, then went in for round two.

Modulating her tone to her best impression of Captain Ibiki's pissed off voice, she dropped Tiger's package on the nearest desk and informed the so-called experts that she expected them to have results within the next six hours or else.

Really, if ever she had wondered why, out of everyone in the Intelligence Division, it was the sealing department that had gotten a room of them own to play in, now she was quite certain that it was solely for the protection of every other ninja who worked there. To think that the ninjas working on the field thought that they had the most dangerous part of the job...

After that, being able to sit down in the peace and quiet of the locker room, eyes closed and savoring the first waves of drowsiness after a long day's work, was bliss. She wished she could make the feeling last forever, but, sadly, there was no rest for the ANBU. It was not long until she heard a set of approaching footsteps.

The door opened, revealing a younger girl, with long blond hair tied up in a ponytail and the bluest of eyes.

"Hello, Ino," she welcomed the newcomer, reluctantly sitting up to make room for her friend. "Are you coming in or heading out?"

"Hey, Rin! Oh! Sorry... I mean Crane." After the cheerful greeting, the next part of her answer was rather redundant. No one who had finished working a shift could sound so energized, unless, of course, they were someone as inhuman as Rock Lee or Naruto Uzumaki. "Just coming in, actually."

Rin was very fond of the Yamanaka girl. She had known her for years now, having apprenticed under her late father, Inoichi, after graduating from the Academy. He was one of the wisest men she knew, but also one of the kindest, and his team had often been invited over for dinner at his home, with his wife and daughter. He had died during the last war and the pain of losing him was still fresh in Rin's mind, as she was sure it was in Ino's. He had helped Rin to not just become an excellent ninja, but a better person. He had been her guide and mentor, and was the reason why Rin, who had been trained as a medical ninja, had found her calling working in Intelligence. Because of this, she could not help but think of Ino in a sisterly fashion.

"So, did anything interesting happen during your shift?" Ino asked, incorrigible gossip that she was. "And by 'interesting' I mean Uchiha."

"Ino!" Rin gasped, scandalized. She had confided in the Yamanaka just the one time and here she was regretting it all over again. "Stop that! It's nothing like that and, besides, I'm not even supposed to know what clan he's from!"

"Oh, it is exactly like that and you know it. You don't fool me! I don't know why you don't just ask him out when he's in the village and be done with it. It's not like you don't know how to contact him or anything," she said with a dismissive laugh.

Rin felt all the calm that her short rest had afforded her slipping through her fingers. If anyone came in and heard the things coming out of Ino's mouth, she would be in big trouble and standing before an inquiry committee trying to explain why she had abused her position to learn personal information about a fellow ANBU before she could say "Ino's fault".

Unfortunately for her, Ino was not done speaking her mind yet.

"It would be good for you, you know? You spend too much time on your own. It's depressing! When was the last time you went out with anyone? And I don't just mean on a date, either. When was the last time you went out with friends?"

To her endless embarrassment, Rin made the mistake of actually taking the question seriously and giving it some thought. She took so long to come up with an answer that she ended up giving Ino all the ammunition she needed to prove her point.

"You see?" the younger girl said. "So, the next time you talk with your boyfriend, ask him out! His codename is Tiger, for crying out loud! What more incentive do you need?"

Between the crazed pranks of the sealing team and Ino's well-meaning but uncalled for pushing, Rin found herself wondering about her life-choices, particularly those that had led her to work in ANBU and to call Ino a friend.

"This place... I see... I'm in hell," she groaned to herself.

The sudden drumbeat of feet hitting the ground outside put an end to the girls' conversation. It was the unwritten policy that no one should run inside the ANBU headquarters unless something very serious was going on and, by the sound of it, whoever it was, was coming their way.

Ino and she had both gotten up to check what the disturbance was about when the locker room door opened with a bang, revealing Aoba Yamashiro.

"Rin! Thank the heavens you're still here! You're needed in the Communication Room, there's a medical emergency!"

Rin stopped only long enough to grab her back pouch off the bench, before darting off at double the speed Aoba had came. She could hear his and Ino's footsteps following her all the way, but the sole thing on her mind was of how she had to put her exhaustion aside. Clipping the pack to her belt and rifling through its contents yielded a pair of food pills, which she gulped down dry en route to whatever trouble awaited her.

Bursting through the Communication Room doors, Rin quickly spotted where it was she needed to go.

"What's wrong, sir?" she asked Ibiki Morino, Captain of the Division. The fact that he was there was indication enough that something had indeed gone very wrong with one of the field teams.

_Tiger?_ the thought flitted past her mind before she dismissed it as impossible. She had spoken to him tonight already and he had not been in any danger.

"Nohara, glad you made it," Captain Ibiki greeted Rin. She usually found him a little hard to talk to, a little rough around the edges, but times like these made her grateful for his pragmatism. "One of our ninjas was severely wounded and there's no one with medical expertise on his team to help. The situation is still hot with ongoing fighting, but you have to get there and patch him up."

"Understood, sir," she replied without hesitation, pushing her short brown hair behind her ears and settling down in front of the chakra transmission communication device that was already calibrated for her.

This was it, the reason why she had joined the Intelligence Division when she could so easily have gone on to have a brilliant career as a surgeon in the Leaf Hospital, away from the dangers of ANBU missions.

Her sensei Inoichi had seen the potential in her and nurtured it, going so far as to use his position as head of the Yamanaka clan and ANBU Captain to bend the rules for her. Throughout the Third Ninja World War, he had witnessed her skills and how she always managed to find a way to patch up her teammates' wounds when proper medical supplies were nowhere to be seen. They could all admit that she was no Tsunade, but her ability to keep her cool, think creatively and work efficiently under duress were far above the ordinary and had saved plenty of lives.

Loathe to see skills like hers go to waste in a Hospital that was already full of perfectly competent doctors, Inoichi had taught her the secret Mind Body Switch technique of the Yamanaka – under oath that she would not pass on the knowledge to anyone else – and created a new position in the Black Ops just for her, that of long-distance medical assistant. What the title meant was that, whenever one of their ninjas was critically wounded without having anyone nearby who could provide medical assistance, Rin would transfer her conscience into one of their teammates and administer treatment _in situ_ herself.

The dangers were high. Often the conflicts were not entirely resolved by the time Rin got there and so she was effectively jumping into a dangerous situation having no prior knowledge of her surroundings, putting not only her life at risk but that of whoever's body she occupied.

Statistics showed that there had been a decrease in the numbers of ninjas killed in action since Inoichi had implemented the long-distance medical assistance system, but many of their operatives were still weary of putting their lives in the hands of some medic girl they had never met before and therefore refused to contact headquarters to call for help to deal with injuries that were treatable. Inoichi and Ibiki had done the math once, after careful analysis of the mission reports with recorded casualties: a third of those deaths could have been avoided if the team captains had decided to request assistance from headquarters.

Rin understood the concerns of the ANBU working on the field, of course, but still wished that these warrior types could admit to needing help every once in a while.

As soon as the headset of the transmission device was in place, Rin performed the Mind Body Switch technique. It pulled her conscience across the wiring connecting her to the machine behind her and then ejected her in the direction she had to go. There was a long distance to travel, so the technique took a couple of seconds to take hold, but the moment she opened her eyes again, Rin was no longer in the village.

She was glad to see that the Leaf team had been careful to hide both their injured teammate and the one who would be serving as medic in some kind of abandoned room. The chamber was grand, with two rows of pillars flanking a central corridor, connecting a single door at one end to a large statue of a Buddha on the other. Besides that statue, the room was bare, adorned only with carvings in the limestone walls that were frighteningly intricate. Rin recognized some depictions of major Bosatsus, but she could only guess what the rest of the pictures meant since she did not even know what country she was in.

"_Whirlpool,_" her host was kind enough to supply.

Her location was the least of her concerns, however, as before her lay her patient, bleeding to death, and from behind her came the sounds of a heated ongoing battle. Standard teams were composed of four members, so she assumed that there were two more Leaf ninjas outside.

Shutting out all distractions, she formed the handseals for the Mystical Palm technique and got to work healing her fellow ANBU.

His condition was severe, but Rin was nothing if not persistent. Little by little, she was able to stem the blood flow and keep her patient from slipping any further away. He was not quite stable yet, but at least the immediate danger had been dealt with. She was assessing the multitude of cuts on the man's body, trying to decide which should be tended first, when her host once again interfered with her thoughts.

"_Behind us!_" he yelled.

His warning kept her from getting skewered by a barrage of incoming kunai. Rin had been focusing too hard on what was in front of her to keep track of the progression of the battle the rest of the Leaf team had been fighting. She only just managed to evade the attack by jumping behind a stone pillar off to the side. Looking back at the space she had just occupied, however, she could see that her patient had not been so lucky. A kunai was sticking out of his exposed throat, a sure kill shot.

She had failed.

"I'm sorry," she told her host, feeling it sincerely although she had only just met them.

"_You did the best you could, miss,_" he said, tension on his voice. "_I think you should go now and leave the fighting to me._"

Rin would if she could. She had no delusions that, whoever she was talking to, he was more skilled than her when it came to doing battle.

"If I break my technique now, that will reveal your position to whoever threw those kunai," she explained. "We need to know what's out there first."

All ninjas understood the value of information, so her host did not even consider arguing. "_There's a mirror in the left breast pocket._"

Rin found it quickly and angled it out from behind the pillar to look at the reflected view of her attackers. The image revealed two men wearing the standard Leaf ANBU uniform and Rin heaved a sigh of relief that the threat had been dealt with. She was about to come out of hiding, when a shudder of alarm from her host froze her in place.

"What is it?" she asked, trusting his greater experience on the field.

"_There were no bodies on the floor._"

Rin realized what the problem was, of course. She was not so inexperienced that she could not tell, just as he had, that a kunai strike like the one she had evaded could not have come from too far away, which left the unpleasant question of where their attackers' bodies were if their teammates had taken them out.

"No... You think your team turned on you?" she asked.

"_I don't know... I don't want to believe it, but why aren't they coming any closer?_"

Rin had no answer to that, so instead she pulled out the mirror one more time and took another look. The two had made no move to come closer, only standing there looking at the body of their fallen teammate. The uniforms were an adequate fit, which lowered the odds that they were someone else impersonating the Leaf ninjas.

As she looked, however, a third figure that was definitely not from the Leaf detached itself from the shadows off to one side and came to stand between the two ANBU. He looked like he had come out of one of those horror films Rin hated. Dark robed, pale skinned and with long, unkempt hair covering half of his face, he had a strange symbol tattooed on his forehead and extending down the bridge of his nose. She could only see half of it, but it reminded her of an elephant's head. Again, she felt a frisson of some emotion from her host and, considering that he was probably better informed than her, she asked him if he knew anything about the man.

"_He works for Taro Shigeki._" Rin recognized the name from Tiger and Dog's mission orders. It was the name of their mark. "_That guy was leading the group of Mist ninjas who attacked us. He came out of nowhere before and hit Fox before we could even notice he was there. It makes no sense for Boar and Monkey not to react to his presence now. We have to assume that they've been compromised and are assisting the enemy for some reason._"

Rin felt dizzy at the implications of her host's words. There was someone dangerous who could take two loyal Leaf ninjas and turn their allegiances around like that, from one moment to the next? That was crazy. How were they supposed to fight something like that?

"No way... Are you saying that your teammates are the ones who attacked us just now?" Rin asked. She was suddenly finding it difficult to keep her breaths even.

"_It could only have been them. There's no one else there,_" he said. His tone this time was softer, probably sensing Rin's fear. "_You should go now, miss. You need to report back to the Leaf about what this guy can do and I have to do what I can to help my two remaining teammates. It doesn't look like that guy is aiming to kill, so I should be fine._"

It was not the first time Rin had been in a situation like this, where every decision felt like the wrong one. As a medical ninja, hard decisions were a part of her job description, however, that did not mean that they ever became easier to make. Were she to leave now, she would give away her host's position. Were she to stay, she risked getting them both killed and leaving the Leaf ignorant of this strange man's apparently dangerous skill.

"All right," she conceded. "I'll break the technique and go back to the village. Please... be careful."

"_Thank you for all your help,_" he said by means of goodbye.

Whatever happened to him next, Rin did not know. She formed the hand seal to release the Mind Body Switch technique and felt her conscience whip across the land a second time, all the way to her body back at the Intelligence Division headquarters. As the chakra transmission communication device began to shut down, Rin pulled off the headset, careful not to get any hairs caught in the many wires that connected to the battery stacks behind her.

She sent a prayer to her fellow ninjas in Whirlpool, all the while knowing it was likely in vain.

* * *

**Posting a little early this time, but I figured there was no point in waiting to update. :)**

**(And here I thought the full fic would be about 10k words long... So naïve...)**


	4. Chapter 4

**IV.**

"Nohara?" Captain Ibiki prompted, as soon as it became clear that Rin was back. Behind him, Ino, Aoba and several other fellow Intelligence Division ninjas anxiously waited for her to tell them how everything had gone. The novelty of the long-range medical assistance type of mission coupled with Ibiki's presence ensured that many put their duties on hold to satisfy their curiosity.

"Mission failed, sir," she said, crestfallen, doing her best not to think of the ongoing battle back in Whirlpool. She hoped that her host managed to stay safe. "I was unable to save the patient."

Rin gave everyone a second to absorb the news. There were many disappointed faces, in particular that of the ninja who had been assigned to that team and therefore knew them better.

The pause also gave her a moment to regain her bearings. She was always a little lightheaded when she returned to her body and the fact that she had been tired even before initiating the Mind Body Switch was not helping. Rather than the slight disorientation that she was used to, Rin was caught in a full blown dizzy spell, complete with cloudy vision and muddled hearing. It soon passed, however. Rin would not be a very good medical ninja if she did not know how to do a few breathing exercises to help her recover.

Once she was feeling more like herself, she realized that perhaps she should have waited to speak to Ibiki in private, rather than in front of all the people who had gathered in the Communications Room. That they had lost an operative was the kind of news that would spread on its own fast enough, but what she had to tell Ibiki next was sensitive information that could cause panic. Not that she did not trust her coworkers to keep their mouths shut when ordered to.

"Captain," she began, "I also have disturbing news. May we speak in your office, perhaps?"

Ibiki looked surprised at the unusual request for privacy, but he could read people easily enough that he surely saw some warning sign in Rin's countenance. He had been a man of few words even in his Academy days, so he just nodded and told her to follow him as he led the way to a secluded office.

Grateful that he agreed without openly questioning the why, Rin stood from her seat without thinking. Immediately, she regretted the decision, as a fresh wave of dizziness almost brought her to her knees. She held her head, willing herself not to empty her stomach on the spot. By itself, the Mind Body Switch technique was costly in terms of chakra, but distance always aggravated it. The energy she had used trying to heal that poor ANBU was not negligible, either.

She would have reached into the supply pouch hooked to her belt to pull out another Food Pill had Ino not grabbed her hand to stop her, pulling her arm over her shoulder to support her weight.

"You already ate two of those before," the young Yamanaka muttered angrily at her, so no one overheard. "Any more and you're the one who will need medical assistance!"

"Sorry..." Rin said, feeling a little ashamed. She pushed herself to the limit in the fulfillment of her duty so often that even Ino had seemingly noticed her unhealthy dependence on the pills.

"Are you all right there, Nohara?" Ibiki asked, looking back.

"She's fine, Captain," Ino was the one who answered with a bright smile. "The switching technique just takes a lot out of a person. I've got her."

If Ibiki was reassured, Rin was thankful that her friend had covered for her. As a medic, Rin may have had the respect of her fellow ninjas during times of crisis, but that did not mean that she did not feel the pressure to never ever let herself be thought of as frail or unable to rise up to the challenge at any time in the same way as her other coworkers. The Nohara were not a notable clan in the Leaf and she had earned her position in the Intelligence Division through merit alone. Her pride would not let her risk the image of competence she had built up for herself because of an overly long shift and a poorly-timed emergency.

The three of them made their way to the nearest unused office without further interruption. As soon as the door was closed behind them, the privacy seals inscribed into the walls activated on their own. Meanwhile, Ibiki pointed out a chair for Rin and settled himself against the table, arms crossed. After helping Rin to sit down, Ino took a step back to remove herself from the center of attention.

"All right, Nohara. No one else can hear us in here," Ibiki explained. "What was it that you wanted to say?"

Rin nodded, mentally bracing herself.

"As you know, when I got to Whirlpool, there was an ongoing fight. Two of our ninjas, Boar and Monkey, were engaging the enemy, while the one who served as my host, Raven, had taken their injured teammate to a secluded place out of harm's way, where I would be able to administer treatment."

She went on to describe the location and narrate the extent of the injuries. She told them about how she had almost managed to stabilize her patient, when the unthinkable occurred.

"We could be wrong, of course, but all the evidence pointed towards the same conclusion. That man, Shigeki's associate, he somehow got inside Boar and Monkey's heads and made them turn against their teammates."

"No way, that's impossible!" Ino exclaimed. Only belatedly did she realize that she had spoken out of turn and interrupted her friend's report, but by then what was done was done and Ibiki actually seemed interested in what she might have to add to the discussion.

"What makes you say that?" Ibiki asked. He had worked closely with Ino's father for years before the Fourth Great War and so knew that the Yamanaka clan had developed a technique that caused much the same effect that Rin had described.

"That sounded almost exactly like my clan's Mind Body Disturbance technique, but there's no way that any Yamanaka would be working for that guy!"

Ibiki thought it over for a few moments, but he obviously did not have as much faith in the infallibility of people as Ino, since he proceeded to ask Rin if there was anything else she could remember that would shed some light on the subject. Undeterred, however, the young Yamanaka interrupted a second time.

"Rin! You said that Boar and Monkey did not react when that guy came close, right?" Rin confirmed it with a nod of the head. Ibiki frowned, but allowed Ino to continue. "Was the enemy making any kind of special hand seals at the time?" This time, the medical ninja shook her head in a negative. "Then something else had to have happened! Any technique that takes control of people's bodies like that requires the wielder to hold the hand seal to keep the targets under their influence!"

"Then perhaps it was not just their bodies that that man was controlling," Rin pondered. "I know a little about your clan's other techniques too, Ino, and neither Boar nor Monkey looked like they were acting against their will. I think it's possible that, whoever that man was, he did something to their minds..."

"Regardless of what that technique did," Ibiki cut in, "we have to assume the worst. We now have two, possibly three, of our ANBU working for the enemy, if he managed to influence Raven the same way as the other two. We have to alert the rest of our ninjas out there to what this man can do, so they can keep an eye out for Boar's team and so that the same thing does not happen to them. Yamanaka, get to work on that! And compile a brief on this guy for the Hokage and our allies in the other nations."

Ino nodded, no doubt already composing the missive in her head and figuring out how many people would have to be contacted. She was well-respected in the Intelligence Division and knew most people who worked there. The task would give her no trouble to complete. In the months since the Fourth War, people had naturally come to rely on her as much as they once had relied on her father.

Ibiki then turned towards Rin.

"Nohara, get home. Get some rest, you've earned it. Good job."

His praise was always welcome, but this time it failed to lift her spirits as it would on any other day. The fact remained that she had actually let someone die and left a teammate alone face to an uncertain fate. Inoichi had once told her that she was a different person in and out of a mission. In the field, she never let a hard decision get in the way of her duty to her friends and village. To a medic, a second's hesitation could mean the difference between life and death, after all. Out of the field, though, the record changed.

Now that she had the time and headspace, she could not stop thinking about everything that had happened, second guessing her every decision. She had never been very good at letting go of those she had failed to help. If she were not so tired, she might have been able to tell herself that there was nothing more she could have done. As it was, however, she was feeling the failure ten times more intensely than usual.

By the time Rin finally found herself home, she felt like she had lived the events of a full week over the course of that single night. Her one consolation was that she had no idea what her host had looked like, or he might have been making an appearance in her nightmares too.

* * *

**I'm sorry this is not a very interesting chapter. I realized as I wrote it that it actually worked better as a part of chapter 3 rather than on its own. One of many things to fix at a later date, I suppose. :)**


End file.
